On 5 and 7 February at the Mariinsky-II there will be a stage premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Simon Boccanegra after the eponymous drama by Antonio García Gutiérrez.
The Mariinsky-II will be staging a 2014 co-production by the Italian opera houses the Teatro La Fenice (Venice) and the Teatro Carlo Felice (Genoa). Stage Director Andrea De Rosa has planned the stage space in such a way as to focus attention on the relationships between the characters and their feelings. The video projections help create the atmosphere in the production; these were made especially for this production using actual landscapes of the sea coast near Genoa where the plot of the opera unfolds (Lighting and Video Designer – Pasquale Mari).
“I remained faithful to the text, attempting to stress the fact that, in my opinion, here the sea is a key element. For a man like Simon Boccanegra it is vital always to have a visible horizon, though the pain and intrigues of power envelop him,” says Andrea De Rosa.
The world premiere of Simon Boccanegra took place in 1857 at the Teatro La Fenice, and had been commissioned from Verdi to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. Despite the fact that by that time the composer was already an acclaimed maestro the public displayed little interest in it, which meant for a time that there would be no new productions. Nevertheless, almost a quarter of a century later, in 1881 Verdi produced a second version with the assistance of Arrigo Boito, reworking both the musical and literary basis of the opera. The “amended” version – the only one performed today – was presented at the Teatro alla Scala on 24 March 1881.
The Mariinsky Theatre has previously only staged concert performances of the opera Simon Boccanegra. At the festival premiere the lead roles will be performed by Mariinsky Opera soloists as well as the acclaimed Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto (as Jacopo Fiesco).
On both evenings the Mariinsky Orchestra will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.
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